Getting Good At Starting Over
by wreckit-ralph
Summary: Determined that MIT will be her future, Felicity takes a scholarship to Starling Prep, one of the most esteemed schools in the country. It's a world away from everything she's ever known, full of careless billionaires who don't seem to believe in education. Focused on her studies, she doesn't expect to be caught up in events that shatter the sheltered lives of everyone around her.
1. That's The Way It Always Starts

**2012**

"We're honoured to have you here, Miss Smoak." Principal Steele told her.

"I'm honoured to be here." Felicity replied, still somewhat dumbfounded by the sheer size and grandeur of Starling Prep.

He slid a slip of paper across the table. "This is your timetable. Now, we have four streams here, you will have classes with other people from your stream. You are in stream 3."

Felicity really hoped the streams weren't sorted by intelligence, because if so, her MIT dreams had already been trashed.

"We try to make sure everyone has a friend in their dorm, but seen as you're new here, we've placed you randomly with five other girls your age. They're very nice, I'm sure you'll get on excellently. There are ten dorms to a common room."

Felicity wasn't looking forward to that particular introduction. She knew spending any long amount of time with her would expose those poor girls to the incessant babbling she just couldn't seem to get a handle on. _I'm destined to be alone, _she thought gloomily.

Principal Steele continued to outline how the school worked in his pleasant way, and Felicity hoped everyone would be as earnestly welcoming as him. Eventually, he introduced her to a smiling man, who was to lead her to her common room where she could leave her luggage. She'd be starting classes straight away.

"I'm sure you'll be eager to start learning as quickly as possible." Principal Steele said, sadly with no hint of irony. Felicity smiled weakly.

The corridors were full of kids, who were thankfully almost normal looking. They talked just as loudly as kids Felicity knew back home, though arguably with better grammar. Her guide led her to outside her common room (which was up an obscene amount of stairs, requiring her to pretend that she was in no way out of breath _at all_) and left her with a smile and a 'have a great first day'. He disappeared as she replied, which left her feeling very stupid and alone.

She pushed the door open with trepidation, relieved to find the common room completely empty. She didn't want to be assaulted by curious billionaires until she had some kind of acquaintance with literally anyone else – then she could pretend that she wasn't a complete loner. She went to sit down on a chair, and physically started on realising that she'd been wrong in her assumption that the common room was empty.

There was someone asleep on the couch. Looking back, Felicity did think it could definitely have been worse – he was still wearing boxers… Oh, and socks.

_Oh God, do I wake him?_

_What the hell, why would you wake him?!_

_What if he's missing a class?!_

_That's not your problem!_

"Did you realise that you just said all that out loud?"

_Oh God._

_Nice one Felicity, you woke him up, and now he thinks you're weird. Way to go!_

_It's been a really long time since he spoke, say something!_

She went to flick her hair out of her face to kill time, and then realised it was in a ponytail, meaning she had to pretend to be scratching her head, which made it look like she had nits, which was just _so much worse…_

"Oh, yeah, totally." She tried to sound offhand, trying to make sure her eyes didn't wander to his crotch area. She failed. And he noticed. Of course he did.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" He grinned, though not necessarily malevolently, and then proceeded to roll off the couch.

"Oh, not at all!" _Felicity, he really wasn't expecting a response!_

"I don't know you." He commented, as he produced a shirt from somewhere behind the sofa. "What's your name?"

"Felicity Smoak." She watched him produce trousers from under the coffee table, wondering why on earth his entire wardrobe was strewn about the common room, instead of in like, his wardrobe. Also, why on earth he was asleep on the couch basically naked, there was that too. She felt a bit weird watching him dress…

_But he's super cute._

Well, that much was undebatable.

She started to ask him his name, but he was already talking again as he hunted behind chairs for his tie or something. "You're a scholarship student aren't you?"

"Uh… yeah. How did you know?"

He turned around for a second, indicating his eyes. "The glasses."

That pissed her off. _Why do cute boys always have to be dicks?_

"That's such a stupid stereotype." She was indignant, and all her shyness melted away. "I'm smart, so I must have bad eyesight? What kind of logic is that? And also…"

"Hey, woah, slow down!" He held up his hands. "I didn't mean it like that at all! I just meant that, well..." he shrugged apologetically, "the rest of us here are super rich. If we have bad eyesight, we get laser eye surgery."

She could feel herself going red instantly. "Oh God, I'm so sorry." _Why Felicity, why? He was cute!_

"It's fine." He was still grinning, and looked utterly unaffected by the awkwardness of the situation. "I respect you standing up for your fellow nerds." His grin was infectious.

The bell went while he was doing his tie.

"Oh crap, I'm supposed to be in chem." He groaned.

"I have chem now too! Lab 43?" Felicity hoped intensely that he would be in her class. He seemed nice enough, and she really didn't want to be the awkward loner new kid on her first day. There was the whole not knowing his name thing (it was totally gonna get to the too late to ask stage) but she could totally work with that.

"Yes!" He looked euphoric at such a small thing. "My very own scholarship student! Have you made any other friends yet? You're gonna be my friend. We're already friends." Finally conquering his tie, he bounced over and slung an arm over Felicity's shoulder. "I'm totally gonna use you for your homework and intelligence, but I promise that I will also value you for your shining personality."

She laughed. He was so irresistibly careless, it was impossible not to like him, and Felicity was extremely pleased with herself for making a friend before she even had her first class.

The corridors had mostly quietened down now (because they were running late) and Felicity was able to appreciate (/scoff at) the utter grandeur of Starling Prep. It was almost like Hogwarts, or Downton Abbey (this was not a comparison she voiced to her new friend). Pictures that hung the walls ranged from sombre and thought-provoking (well, probably) to abstract and terrifyingly colourful, but they were all large, ornately framed, and very original looking.

"I've been told to clean up my act." Her friend informed her as he led her to Lab 43 (another thing he was useful for). "If I skip any more classes or do anything even _slightly _out of the ordinary, I'm out." He sounded cheerful as he spoke of his possible expulsion. Felicity envied his obvious security, and felt slightly resentful that he obviously didn't give a shit about the exorbitant education he was receiving with no concern for his merit.

When they finally reached Lab 43, her friend (she really needed something better to call him) pushed open the door enthusiastically, announcing their (late) entrance with a loud "sorry that _WE _are not on time!" The teacher turned around with a sigh, a small, beakish woman, who looked fairly genial.

"You must be Felicity Smoak." She addressed Felicity directly, with a smile, and obviously deliberately ignoring Felicity's new friend.

"Yes, that's me."

Her friend cut in: "I'm her tour guide. Which means she has to sit with me." He looked extremely pleased with himself as the teacher gave no indication of being in anyway opposed to his statement, and turned back to her lesson as Felicity put her bag down next to her friend.

She decided she was going to get along with this teacher. Anyone who forsook long introductions got an A+ from her.

"Am I stealing someone's seat? Do you normally sit with someone?"

"Honestly," he pulled a face, "I have no idea."

"You _don't know _if someone sits here or not?!"

He seemed to concentrate momentarily. "I haven't been to this class since last semester." He told her, proudly. "Get out your timetable."

He pulled out his own to compare, grin getting wider as he scanned the two pieces of paper. "Oh this is just _excellent." _He whispered gleefully. "You're with me for almost _everything! _We're gonna sit together in every class, and I am not gonna get chucked out." He grinned at her. "Problem solved."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Before, it seemed like you wanted to get thrown out."

"Oh no, all my friends are here! I'd just have to go to some other fancy prep school, but I'd be friendless, and plus, there would be no Felicity Smoak." He wiggled his eyebrows. "But seriously, you ever need a favour, I'm here, just help me. Do you need a million dollars for anything? I can get you all the beer you want. I'll pay you through college, I'll…"

"Stop!" She cut him off with a grin. "Just buy me some Monster Munch at break and you're set."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah. I could do that too." He paused for a second and then looked guilty. "I don't know what those are." He confessed.

"You billionaires are missing out."

The rest of the class passed, interspersed throughout with the constant chatter of Felicity's new friend. It was a trait she deeply appreciated, knowing it was something she did, and also, if he was always talking, there was less room for her to start babbling and scare him off.

In the end, she decided he was the type of person who really wouldn't care that she didn't know his name after an hour of conversation, and decided just to ask him.

"You know, I never actually, uh, caught your name…" _Oh God Felicity why didn't you just wait? This is gonna be so awkward, you would've heard it in conversation at some point, oh my God you're going to lose your only friend, you absolute idiot!_

"I never gave it to you." He laughed. "Not purposefully, obviously. It just never occurred to me that there are people here who don't know who I am. That sounded really big-headed. I'm gonna stop talking."

Felicity grinned. That was usually her line.

"You are big-headed."

He pretended to look anxious. "Do you really think so?"

"So what _is _your name?"

"Oh, it's Tommy. Tommy Merlyn."

"Well, it is very nice to meet you Tommy." She held out her hand in mock greeting, and he took it enthusiastically.

Two hours of English Lit passed, which Felicity actually found herself enjoying – Tommy decided to do impressions of all the characters in The Great Gatsby, and his attempt to look like he had bulging muscles for Tom had Felicity almost fall off her seat (which was mortifying, but she was fairly sure only Tommy saw).

"I think I may adopt 'old sport' as part of my everyday vocabulary." He decided. "That's a lovely tie you're wearing, old sport."

They were making their way to the Dining Hall for lunch, something which Felicity had been excited about since arriving, thinking what kind of fancy the cafeteria had to be referred to as 'the dining hall'.

She wasn't disappointed in her imaginings.

Though filled with hungry students yelling at their friends, the room still embodied an elegance Felicity had never experienced in Vegas. Again, she thought it was all very Harry Potter, but had decided that the kids here probably only got to read classics.

Tommy lead her over to two girls sitting at the end of one of the stretching mahogany tables, and she sat next to him, awkwardly smiling at the other two girls.

"Laurel, Johanna, this is Felicity, she's new here. Felicity, this is Laurel and Johanna."

"It's nice to meet you." Felicity said.

"She's a real scholarship student." Tommy put in. "You three nerds will get on perfectly."

"We're not scholarship students Tommy." Johanna rolled her eyes. "It's nice to meet you too Felicity."

Laurel nodded in agreement. "It'll be nice to talk about something else than 'mega-hot girls', won't it Tommy?" She smiled sardonically at him and then switched to a pleasant smile for Felicity.

A blonde girl runs over, whacking Laurel in the back. "I need your history homework that you did."

Laurel turns to her, speaking sarcastically. "Hi, Sara! Isn't it a nice morning? How was class?"

"Please!" Sara interrupts urgently.

Laurel rolls her eyes and roots through her bag for a pristine looking essay, which Sara takes in delight, and with a hurried thank you she is gone.

"My sister." Laurel explains. "The bane of my existence." She adds with a grin.

"Ooh, are you sure Sara's the bane of your existence?" Johanna teases.

"True." Laurel shook her head ruefully. "I must be cursed." Her tone was wistful as she slapped Tommy's hand away from stealing one of her fries.

"So you must be in stream three." Johanna turns to Felicity. "Poor you, stuck with Tommy for the rest of your high school life."

"Hey!" Tommy exclaims indignantly. "I am very good company! You first streamers are such snobs."

Laurel sighed. "You know, I really did think the streams were based on intelligence. But obviously not, or you'd be in first."

"I hope you're right." Felicity grinned nervously.

Laurel was prevented from replying, because at that moment, a boy shoved onto the bench beside her, and kissed her full on the mouth. Tommy turned to Felicity and mimed being sick, which made her giggle, which was awkward because she didn't know the other boy and it definitely looked like she was laughing at him.

When they broke apart, Laurel narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?"

The other boy tried (and failed) to not look guilty. "Do I need a reason to kiss my girlfriend?"

Laurel just looked at him.

He dropped eye contact and looked helplessly at Tommy. "I didn't go to class." He mumbled.

"What?" Laurel hissed. "You're on probation! Are you trying to get thrown out?! You missed three whole hours! Even Tommy went to class!"

Tommy (who, bless him, had a gift for cutting in at the most awkward moments) grinned. "I'm a model student now."

"I hate class." The other boy moaned, after glaring at Tommy. "There is no one to talk to in fourth stream, they deliberately put me on own!"

Tommy whispered to Felicity: "In this case, let's assume the streams are chosen according to intelligence."

"Maybe if you went to class, you could meet some people from fourth stream, and then you wouldn't be on your own!" Felicity admired Laurel's relentless tirade, which succeeded in making the other boy lapse into silence, looking sulky.

Tommy (of course) was the one to break the silence. "This is Felicity." He said helpfully.

The other boy, relieved to have an excuse to stop pretending to be ashamed, looked up in interest. "I'm Oliver." He said, reaching across the table to shake her hand, which Felicity only took after realising he was sincere and that people other than businessmen actually shook hands in the upper class world.

"Oliver is an idiot." Laurel grumbled, sliding a sausage off of his plate nonetheless. "But don't worry; he won't be here much longer."

"I swear Laurel, I'm gonna go to class from now on."

"You said that on Friday after they gave you the ultimatum."

"Well, I mean it this time."

"You better do." Laurel's glare was terrifying and Felicity was in awe. "We've gotta go, we've got gym." Her and Johanna stood up, and Oliver slid across the bench so that he was opposite both Tommy and Felicity.

_He's just as cute as Tommy, _was Felicity's immediate thought, which she scolded herself for.

"How do we feel about me getting thrown out?" Oliver asked, as soon as Laurel was out of earshot, picking up a strange shaped potato from his plate and looking at it in distaste.

"Not good man, I thought we were getting our acts together!"

"I don't think it's gonna work out." He wrinkled his nose at the potato, and chucked it away to his right, where it hit some poor kid on the head, forcing Oliver to sheepishly duck his head. "I've had enough of this school."

Tommy looked pained, and Felicity could tell that he didn't want Oliver to go. The way Oliver had addressed them as 'we' gave her the impression that they were very close.

"Don't leave me alone with these people." Tommy whined. "And I am totally not including you in that _at all _Felicity." He added.

Oliver groaned. "I'll do my best." He decided. "But I've got physics next, and if that's not an incentive to discard my education, I don't know what is."

Tommy laughed. "Well, I got my very own scholarship student."

"I am so _not _writing all your papers for you."

Tommy wiggled his eyebrows again, something he seemed fond of. "You say that now, but soon, you'll be begging me for the chance."

Felicity rolled her eyes, and Oliver looked disinterestedly off into the distance.

"Why are you so quiet?" Tommy asked him.

"Tired."

"After last night?"

"Yeah." He grinned. "I got lucky."

Tommy sighed dramatically, putting his head in his hands. "Jesus Oliver, you're supposed to be dating Laurel."

"We're literally fourteen, it's not like we're married or something." Oliver was dismissive, but Felicity could tell that he felt guilty.

"You may as well be."

Felicity felt horrible for Laurel, in the realisation that her lazy boyfriend was also unfaithful. They might just be kids, but it was in no way fair at all. Oliver might be cute (and very likely rich), but he wasn't very _nice. _

Saying that, he was still pleasant to Felicity, asking her where she was from and what she was studying for her electives. He was charming, and Felicity could instantly see why he and Tommy were close. They were similarly careless and confident, with an utter disregard for anything but the here-and-now. Though they were almost identical in personality, from their interactions Felicity gathered that Oliver was the slightly wilder one, whilst Tommy was a peacemaker who really liked to talk.

Tommy had a warmth about him that made you want to listen to him, whatever inappropriate remark he was making, whilst Oliver had more of an irresponsible charm to him. They were both exuberant and loud, and Felicity decided that their sexual awakenings must have come when they were about five, for the amount they talked about girls. Stereotypically, Felicity had expected them to be into football, but neither boy seemed to have any interest in sports (which was great for Felicity because she would've been utterly lost in that conversation), and were more concerned with the way their hair fell (which Felicity could totally sympathised with, it was so impossible to get it right she'd just decided to stick with ponytails).

The bell rang, and the three of them stood up, Oliver with an exaggerated sigh. "Do you think she'd know if I just didn't go?"

"Yes." Said Felicity.

"Don't even try." Advised Tommy.

"I swear to God, if we're working out what happens when we mix oxygen with helium, I'm going to kill myself." Felicity didn't have the heart to tell him that was chemistry, and her and Tommy waved sardonically as Oliver stalked away looking disgruntled.

They sat in the common room doing homework, having commandeered most of the comfortable seats. Laurel had already finished, and was reading Pride and Prejudice with a frown. Sara was curled up on the chair opposite, trying to balance her calculus textbook on her lap whilst she did the problems. On the couch, Tommy and Felicity were researching post war Germany, whilst Oliver groaned at his algebra.

"Oh for God's sake." He snapped, promptly screwing up his paper and throwing it into the fire.

Laurel lowered her book. "Was that your math homework?"

"No." Said Oliver decisively. Laurel just rolled her eyes and continued reading, as Oliver grimaced at Tommy.

A very pretty dark haired girl came over and jumped on to the arm of Sara's chair. "Have you done your geography?"

"It's my next priority." Sara groaned. "Why I thought it would be a good idea to come to your 'good student' party last night, I will never know." Her words were directed at Tommy and Oliver.

"It was a good party!" Tommy argued. "How's it going Nyssa?" He asked the dark haired girl.

"How's what going?"

"No I mean generally- you know what, never mind."

"You fell asleep on the couch practically naked." Laurel informed Tommy. _Well that explains what he was doing there, _Felicity thought wryly. Tommy just wiggled his eyebrows in response, something Felicity was coming to realise that he did a lot.

"Do you wanna go upstairs Laurel?" Oliver interrupted the conversation.

"Now?"

"_Upstairs?"_ Oliver repeated, a grin creeping on to his face.

The corners of Laurel's mouth turned up, her eyes flickering. "I would very much like to go upstairs." She agreed, and the two of them got up, whispering and giggling as they disappeared. Felicity about what Oliver had said about getting lucky last night, and wondered if she should tell Laurel. After lunch, Tommy had asked her not to; though he too looked kind of pissed off about that. Felicity decided it wasn't her business, but still felt like knowing about it made the blame partially hers.

Johanna, who had just joined them, sighed as she dropped into Laurel's vacated seat. "Let's play a game of whose room will be unsafe for the next hour or so."

"I vote mine." Tommy slapped a hand on the table.

"Oh please," Nyssa rolled her eyes, "They're fourteen, at the most they're going to make out a little."

"Have you ever seen Laurel and Ollie make out?" Sara asked. "Their tongues are everywhere, it's disgusting." She shuddered, but to Felicity, it felt like there was something else there. Maybe it was that Laurel was Sara's sister, but somehow she didn't think that was it.

"Personally, I think you're all being very assuming." Felicity grinned. "How do you know Oliver isn't showing Laurel his fossil collection?"

Tommy laughed. "You're right, we should think more highly of them. I'm sure Oliver just wants to talk to Laurel about the state of the economy in private."

"God, I hope your Dad calls in the middle of them making out again." Johanna said. "He hates Oliver so much, it's hilarious."

"I think that may be partially due to the time Oliver and I left drawing pins on his chair in first year." Tommy grimaced. "Yeah, he was not happy about that…"

"Your Dad teaches here?" Felicity asked Sara.

"Yeah, biology, god knows why. He's the reason me and Laurel are here." She gestured at the general vicinity. "There's no way we could afford to come here."

"Tell me about it." Felicity agreed.

"Such lowly paupers." Tommy mocked as he tried to balance his pencil on the end of his nose instead of drawing the quadratic graphs they had moved onto.

"I feel like a charity worker just talking to you, it's extremely self-fulfilling." Nyssa teased, though in a deadpan sort of way that left Felicity unsure whether she was really joking or not.

"Posh twats." Sara snorted.

"The language of the peasants these days." Tommy grinned. "My ears are bleeding."

Felicity threw a cushion at him, which only made him laugh more.

"Cheer up Smoak." He told her. "Four days, and then we can have the sort of party I'm definitely not allowed to have any more to celebrate a week of hard work."

"Ollie won't be invited then." Sara said.

"What kinds of parties do fourteen year old boarders even have?"

"Well let me tell you, there's a hard core amount of fizzy drinks, which would just disappoint your parents." He wiggled his eyebrows in an exaggerated manner, as if he was going to throw the best party of his life.

"Who's disappointing parents?" Oliver appeared behind them. "I'm definitely in."

"That was quick." Tommy observed, surprised.

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Your Dad called again." He told Sara. "I think he's worked out our routine."

"What a shame!" Johanna said sarcastically.

Oliver turned to Felicity. "What's a coefficient?"

"It's the number in front of the unknown value; like in 20x, 20 is the coefficient."

Oliver scrunched up his eyes for a second, trying to commit the information to memory. "Well that is my learning for the day done!" He announced cheerfully. "Who wants to go down to the changing rooms and mess up Coach Wilson's spare kit system?"

**I had to massively fuck around with everyone's ages and backstories in this – sorry?**


	2. Sugar, We're Going Down

"This is gonna be _awesome!"_ Tommy whispered to her gleefully.

"How awesome can a party in our common room be?" Felicity questioned. "We'll probably be wearing school _uniforms_ and drinking lemonade."

"You underestimate me." Tommy grinned. "But I can get you some lemonade if you'd rather."

Felicity decided to ignore him.

She'd been here almost a week now, and through Tommy, thought she'd integrated herself rather nicely into Starling. It did help that Tommy tended to treat her like they'd been friends for years. Sara and Nyssa were in her dorm, which was nice. Sara had been warm from the beginning, whilst Nyssa had taken a little longer. She'd come around after Felicity hacked into the school server to change her late mark (Tommy's fault). Nyssa had deemed that a useful (and possibly slightly impressive) skill.

She'd also befriended a boy named Barry Allen in fourth stream, whom she had met after taking some fourth stream core classes to make room for extra electives. Tommy had pretended to sulk for an hour when she'd moved out of his biology to make room for computer science at the same time, proclaiming that "no normal fourteen year old should be studying computer science out of choice" but he'd smiled as he'd said it.

It was Friday afternoon, and they'd just got back from English Lit, and Tommy was planning a party for the next night whilst Felicity stared at her homework in order to evoke the feeling of doing something useful.

"Tommy, there is no way you're getting anything at this short notice." Laurel put in, without looking up from her French textbook.

"Who said anything about me getting it?"

"You did."

"Whatever. Oliver said he'd get it."

Laurel laughed. "He said that last time."

Tommy wasn't listening anymore, having just got a call from someone or other on his phone and shifted away from Felicity and Laurel to talk. Felicity could tell very quickly that it was a girl by Tommy's expression, and gave him a look that was meant to say 'you're gross'.

The door swung open with a crash behind them. "Guess who made a friend in fourth stream?" A triumphant Oliver tried to vault over the couch, failed, and hit the floor. He bounced back up, trying to pretend that nothing had happened. "This is Dig." He indicated a guy behind him, with the largest muscles Felicity had ever observed on a fourteen year old in her entire life.

Felicity had realised that her moving into fourth stream classes was probably going to put her in at least one of Oliver's classes, and it had, though he hadn't been to any of them yet, so she'd not yet experienced his presence in class.

"Felicity." She waved at Dig. "I'm in your Spanish."

"His real name is John Diggle." Oliver smirked, kissing Laurel on the cheek and proceeding to throw his feet up on the coffee table.

"Thanks for that Oliver." Dig deadpanned, and sat down on the couch next to Felicity. Oliver grinned at him, and Felicity hoped the sarcasm hadn't gone as far over his head as it looked like.

Tommy finished his call with a sly grin. "You still getting drinks for tomorrow?" He asked Oliver.

Oliver pulled a face. "Where do I get them from?"

"You said you'd have no problems." Tommy groaned.

"I can get them." Felicity interrupted before Oliver could reply. "Well, I mean I can't actually get them because even with ID I still look prepubescent. But I can get ID for one of you."

Tommy looked impressed. "So who looks the closest to 21?"

"None of you." Nyssa entered the room, Sara behind her. "You haven't got a chance, card or not."

"They have to serve you if you've got a card." Oliver argued.

"I've got an older brother." Dig cuts in. "He could do it with a card, he owes me a favour."

Oliver clapped his hands gleefully. "Dig, you are already proving to be an excellent friend. Meanwhile, for extra support, I'll sneak into my parents' house and nick some stuff, who's helping me carry it?"

/

Felicity stared up at the Queen mansion with a sigh. "I can't believe I'm doing this." She said, for the fourteenth time.

"It's for the good of the many." Oliver grinned. "Besides, it's my house, it's not like you're breaking in; I have a key."

He shoved the key in the lock, and then paused, turning back. "When we see someone, just go with the flow okay? Improvise."

"_When?"_ Hissed Felicity. "When did we go past '_if_ we see someone'? The whole concept of sneaking in is that we're not supposed to be seen by anyone!" She followed him all the same as he entered the house (or castle, as Felicity thought was more appropriate).

The room Felicity found herself in was more of a cavern than a room in Felicity's opinion. "You live here? How big _is _your family?"

"There's four of us." Oliver strode off to the right, ignoring the sweeping staircases (multiple). "Five, if you count Tommy."

"Have you ever met your sibling? I mean, in this house, it _would_ be possible to avoid each other for fourteen years."

Oliver sniggered. "I wish."

They went along a corridor and through another a door, and then down some horribly dark steps into a cold, badly lit cellar.

"This is like a dungeon." Felicity complained, trying to work out whether Oliver was still in front of her.

"Sorry we didn't do up the cellar." Oliver said derisively. He was to her left, Felicity decided. "There's a light switch somewhere around here… I think…" She thought she could make out him trying to find the wall.

"That's my shoulder. When was the last time you came down here?"

Oliver ignored her, continuing to move his hand around the wall looking for the switch. "Aha!" He shouted, as a single dingy bulb flickered to life.

"So much for being quiet." Felicity sighed, looking around. "Wow, you've got quite a collection down here."

"How about this?" Oliver held up a dusty bottle.

"No self-respecting teenager is going to drink Merlot at a party."

"Is that what it says?" Oliver squinted at the label. "Oh, right." He set it down.

"Have you got anything that didn't cost $400?"

"Doesn't look like it. My parents must have finished the secret vodka stash." His joke was wistful and then his expression twisted momentarily, which Felicity took for his decision making face. "We'll just have to count on Dig's brother, let's go."

They headed back up the steps and along the corridor, eventually emerging back out into the cavernous entrance hall. Oliver was just about to let them out, when someone called him.

"Oliver! What are you doing here?" _Oh no. _A smartly dressed blonde woman stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at them in surprise. _She doesn't look like she works here. _

Oliver turned around, fixing a large smile on his face. "Mom! This is Felicity, my, uh…" _Definitely doesn't work here._

"Friend." Felicity cut in, before Moira could get the impression she was definitely getting.

Oliver's Mom's expression switched to one of understanding, which was confusing because Felicity did not understand why she was understanding. "It's nice to meet you Felicity. I'm Oliver's mother." She started to come down the stairs. Felicity did not get the impression that it was nice to meet her at all.

"Oliver, why aren't you at school? I would've thought you'd have been spending your weekend with Tommy."

"Right." Oliver nodded. "Felicity and I were just getting some, uh…"

"Pictures." Felicity put in helpfully, wondering where on earth she was going with this.

"Pictures." Oliver agreed. "For um…"

"Art." Felicity said.

"I wasn't aware you were taking art Oliver." _Oh dear God._

"No! He isn't. But I am! Oliver said I could take some pictures of his house, your house, for my project. On houses."

"Because our house is… unique." Oliver seemed to have gotten his bearings.

Felicity nodded. "Like a castle." _That was a stray thought! Why did it have to come out in conversation?! _

"Because her project is on Lord of the Rings." Oliver said, and Felicity felt like kicking him. "There's lots of castles in that." He was even worse at this than her. They had literally just said that the project was on houses. Thankfully, Moira didn't say anything.

Deciding this had gone on way too long; Felicity scrambled for a way to get them out. "Hey Oliver, don't you have that thing? With Tommy?"

"Oh yeah! That thing… that I have to do… right now. Bye Mom." _Oh my God._

"Oliver, stay for dinner tonight."

"I can't, I have study group." This time, Oliver's reply was immediate; indicating that he'd used it before. _Oliver please, something believable._

"Well, it's nice to see you taking your studies seriously."

"Mmhm." Oliver started to back out the door, dragging Felicity with him. "I'll see you soon!" He said desperately. "Say hi to Dad and Thea for me!"

As the door closed behind them, he groaned. "That was awful. I thought she'd be out in the day."

"Tell me about it. _Lord of the Rings? Really?"_

"She's never seen it, I figured it was safe."

"Let's go. Before your Mom realises that I didn't have a camera with me."

/

The common room was full of kids, and some kind of rap music was playing loudly on speakers Felicity assumed Tommy had stolen from the music department. To his credit, he had done an impressive job with the small amount he'd had to work with, Felicity decided. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves at any rate.

Dig was sprawled on the couch next to her, the two of them having hit it off. "How long do you think it will be before we get disbanded?" He yelled, which he had to do to be heard over the music.

"I'm surprised it hasn't already happened!" Felicity shouted back.

Their other friends were scattered about the area. Tommy was sat triumphantly in a corner with a girl Felicity didn't know, but already felt sorry for. Nyssa, though previously had stated she was above 'little-kid parties' was wiping the floor with at least five people as they tried to play darts. Felicity had no idea where the board had come from. Oliver and Laurel were sat together, sporadically making out, whilst Oliver downed an unreasonable volume of liquid that he'd be regretting in the morning.

As fourteen year olds usually are, everyone was exceptionally excited by the presence of alcohol in their midst. This meant that they'd all proceeded to drink a very large amount, resulting in a very long toilet queue and quite a few people looking very pale. At times like these, Felicity was very glad her Mother was a cocktail waitress who'd taught her about these things.

Sara came over (someone else who'd fallen prey to the lure of teenage rebellion), sliding on to the couch next to Felicity. "This stuff is gross." She groaned. "My head kills."

"That's vodka." Felicity told her. "Of course it's gross."

"Bastard."

"What?"

"Ollie. He told me it wasn't that strong."

"Bastard." Felicity agreed.

"But he's so cute." Sara whined. "It's not fair." Felicity silently agreed. Sara continued: "I kind of have a crush on him." She confessed. "I know Laurel's my sister, but he's so nice to me."

_Is he really? _

Knowing Sara was only telling her this because she was drunk, Felicity really didn't know what to say.

"You could do much better Sara." Dig, who'd apparently also been listening, said. "Date someone of substance."

"Yeah." Felicity nodded. "Someone who's not dating your sister." _And cheating on her, _she left unsaid.

"Mm." Sara replied, in a way that made Felicity sure she didn't intend to heed their advice in the slightest. "Yeah, I'll do that." She said, but Felicity could see her staring at Oliver anyway. She watched Laurel turn her head to talk to Johanna, and Oliver wink at Sara. _Please Sara, don't fall for it. _Felicity and Dig looked at each other in resignation.

Barry came over, smiling nervously, and Sara got up to give him her seat. "Nice party." He said. "Thanks for inviting me."

"No problem. I needed a fellow nerd, didn't I?" She punched him on the shoulder, which would've felt a little lame if it had been anyone but Barry.

"Speaking of, the Avengers comes out next week. Do you wanna go see it?"

"I'm there." Felicity grinned. "I mean, I'm not." She added hastily. "I would very much like to go see the Avengers with you Barry." She settled for. Barry was looking at her, and she noticed he didn't seem to have been annoyed at all by her unneeded clarification. _He knew what you meant! _ He was a nice guy – just the sort of person she wanted to be friends with. She regarded Tommy making out with a girl in the corner of the room and thought, not for the first time, that he was probably the worst person possible to be associated with in terms of a good reference. _On second thoughts, it's more likely Oliver; _Felicity backtracked as she watched the other boy throw a finished beer bottle at the fireplace where it shattered across the stone.

She liked Tommy anyway, whatever his reputation, he was nice to her. He was a good guy (sort of). He treated his friends well anyway. Felicity wondered about his family. Did he have siblings? Was he close to his parents? Oliver had referred to him as being a fifth member of his family, indicating Tommy spent most of his free time at the Queen's.

Felicity decided it wasn't her business, and turned back to Barry, aware that she'd not been listening to anything he might have said to her. "So have you been studying for the biology test?" She asked him, fully aware that talking about class at a party was incredibly lame. Still, Barry cheerfully took her conversation starter, launching into an account of something biology related. The way his face lit up when he talked about science was cute.

He was cute.

/

Monday morning in the breakfast hall, and all of them were still feeling the effects of lost sleep. Felicity was fairly sure she had baked beans on her face, but was too tired to care. Laurel was bleary-eyed, Sara looked like she'd just rolled out of bed and Dig, like he was about to fall asleep in his sausages. Only Nyssa and Tommy were unaffected by the impending school week. Nyssa, because she never seemed to care about or be affected by anything, and Tommy, because he was a continuing ball of harrowing excitement. Oliver, as could've been predicted, had not shown up yet.

"One more week." Dig muttered. More to himself, Felicity thought, like he needed to push himself through it.

"This half term couldn't come fast enough." Laurel agreed, mournfully chewing a large mouthful of burnt egg. Apparently, going to a school with a thousand pound budget didn't mean the school dinners were going to be any better.

"I've a proposal." Tommy said, his eyes glinting. "Let's spend half term at my house."

"It'd be better than staying here for a week." Sara pulled a face. "Or going home."

"Exactly." Tommy grinned. "We can do whatever we want. Fiesta time!"

"Won't your parents mind?" Dig asked.

"My Dad has already informed me that he won't be in." Tommy relayed, a note of uncharacteristic dryness slipping into his voice. It made him sound slightly bitter, something that Felicity had never thought to associate with Tommy Merlyn in a million years.

"All of us?" She asked.

"Most definitely." Tommy nodded. "There's room for way more than this." He gestured at them all.

"Right, billionaire. Whose mansion is bigger, yours or Oliver's?" Felicity teased.

"Mine." Tommy answered immediately.

"How _was _your visit to Ollie's?" Laurel asked, curiously, and with a bit of a mischievous grin starting to emerge.

"Uh… yeah… it was… interesting. I met his Mother." She didn't feel comfortable calling Mrs Queen Oliver's 'Mom'. It seemed too casual for her.

"Ooh." Tommy winced. "Thrown in at the deep end then."

"Moira's terrifying." Laurel explained. "And she _likes _me."

"I'm fairly sure she didn't like me."

"Moira and I have a unique relationship." Tommy declared, with a grin. "She hates me, but I think she is also secretly intrigued by me."

"That's nice Tommy." Laurel said dryly, with a bored tone that suggested she'd heard him make the joke before. "So why didn't she like you?"

"We came up with a load of bullshit about what we were doing in the house. And Oliver is a crap liar, who ruined my almost plausible story."

"I could've told you that." Dig chimed in. "And I've only known him for three days."

The bell rang, and Felicity headed to Spanish with Dig. She'd decided that her claim over Dig was better than Oliver's – Oliver could sit on his own (which was assuming he showed up). Dig was pretty cool, and she was fairly sure she'd be getting more work done next to him than she ever did next to Tommy.

They commandeered the back row, which came in handy when Oliver (surprisingly) showed up precisely 12.4 minutes late, as the teacher dryly informed him.

"Hi Dig. Hello Felicity. Thanks for saving me a seat."

"We didn't." Dig said.

"No one wanted to sit with you then?" Oliver grinned. "Their loss. What are we learning? Is this Lit?"

Dig groaned.

Oliver, unperturbed, leaned around Dig. "Felicity, what class is this?"

"French." Felicity told him.

"Thank you Felicity. Can I borrow a pen?"

/

"Mr Queen?"

"Hm?" Oliver started, and Felicity was fairly sure he'd dozed off. She wouldn't have put it past him.

"Would you translate the passage for us? If you're not too tired that is."

"No, no I'm fine. Excited to learn about…" He trailed off, sounding like he was marvelling at how he couldn't even pretend to be excited. "Excited to translate this passage." He smiled. The same smile he used when he talked about 'getting lucky' or when he was talking to his Mom, which was a disturbing parallel.

"It's already in English?" Felicity heard him whisper under his breath to himself.

"Right, uh… okay… Bonjour? Je m'appelle Pedro. J'aime? J'aime. J'aime des sports… par exemple? Le hockey et le football." He finished, looking pleased with himself. Felicity was actually quite impressed.

"Very good Mr Queen." The teacher said, as Dig sniggered into his hand. "Your French is really coming along."

"Thanks!" Oliver said, cheerfully. Felicity marvelled at how he hadn't managed to catch on yet.

The teacher's expression swapped to one of concern. "Mr Queen, you do… you do realise this is Spanish class? You have got that, right?"

Felicity had to give him credit. His smile only slipped for a fraction of a second. "Hahaha, of course. It was just a joke." She wouldn't be giving him credit for his ability to lie convincingly. "I love Spanish class." He said, feebly.

"Right." The teacher said, unimpressed. "Well, if you'd translate the passage into Spanish…" She indicated another student, and Oliver relaxed, leaning back in his chair so he could see around Dig.

"Well played." He conceded, his voice low.

Felicity didn't look at him. She just continued to chew her pen, a smile creeping across her face. Tommy and Laurel would find this one funny.

/

They were back in the common room, same as pretty much every night. Felicity was never sure which one of them was intimidating the other kids into vacating the chairs, but she was grateful to them (it was probably Nyssa).

Oliver had grudgingly (after coercion from Dig), told the story of his mishap in Spanish, and as predicted, Tommy and Laurel had found it hilarious – a lot funnier than it had ever been.

"Hey Oliver, what do you reckon?" Tommy grinned. "All of us at mine for half term?" He wiggled his eyebrows, making Felicity wonder if the muscles in his forehead ever got tired from all that eyebrow wiggling.

"Awesome." Oliver agreed. "But I can't."

Laurel put down her text book. "Why not?"

"Dad's taking the Queen's Gambit out. I'm going with him."

Tommy's grin dropped for a moment. Then it was back again, full force. "Lame." He teased.

"You'll have lots of time for your schoolwork." Laurel added in, dryly.

"Ah! That _is _why I'm going."

"I'll send you pictures of our half term so you don't feel left out." Laurel grinned. "Unless, you're too busy working. I wouldn't want to distract you."

"Right." Oliver nodded exaggeratedly. "You better not. I want to stay fully focused."

Laurel snorted. "I'm going to bed." She declared, standing up. "Do your Algebra Ollie." She left the room, heading upstairs.

"The Queen's Gambit ey?" Felicity raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"His Dad's boat." Joanna supplied.

"Of course it is." Felicity rolled her eyes. "What are you even going to do on a boat for a week? Does it have a pool? A cinema? How big is it?"

"Big enough. And I'm sure I'll find something to do."

He was possibly the most unsubtle person Felicity had ever met. She watched him wink quickly at Sara, and subsequently observed the corners of Sara's mouth turn up and blush creep into her cheeks.

_They wouldn't._

_They would, _something told her.

_Oh, Laurel. _At least she would find out. There was no way Oliver and Sara could hide them going away in a boat together for a _week. _Felicity watched Tommy frown, telling her that he'd also observed the silent exchange between his friends.

"Anyway." Oliver interrupted the silence that had never really been there. "I'm going up. See you later."

Felicity watched him go, watched Sara's eyes follow him carefully as he disappeared up the stairs. _That is not going to end well for either of them._


End file.
